That’s what the 2015 National Superintendent of the Year says about the current climate in our schools — that we’re facing a testing epidemic. Philip Lanoue, Superintendent of Clarke County Schools in Georgia, has this to say about what America’s schools are facing: It is clear that the annual testing merry-go-round is not going to […]

Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister released a statement yesterday addressing that state’s teacher shortage: “The OSSBA survey confirms what we have all suspected, that the teacher shortage has worsened significantly. The shortage has meant the elimination of teaching positions, increased class sizes and the slashing of class offerings. We are shortchanging our schoolchildren each […]

A teacher in Nashville who went through two rounds of merit pay experiments shares her thoughts and explains why she’s not a fan of the practice. From her column: What I witnessed on the ground level, during the implementation of these various plans, at various schools, amongst various staff, is that they did nothing to […]

Donna Krache offers a very brief explanation of why using value-added modeling (VAM) as the key means of determining teacher effectiveness is seriously flawed: The VAM system in New York also presents content challenges. Since the state’s tests are given only in math and English Language Arts, and since all teachers must be evaluated in part […]

Testing experts have for years now been warning school reformers that efforts to evaluate teachers using VAM are not reliable or valid. This from yet another story about problems with value-added modeling, or VAM. The story details the case of a New York teacher who is suing the state because evaluation results there, based on […]